COUNCIL REJECTS POLICE CONTRACT FOR THIRD TIME

For the third time since fall, the town council Monday night rejected a proposed contract with town police.

It was the fourth proposal that has been tendered since June - with the first rejected by the union, the last three by the council. Town police have been working without a contract since July 1, 1992.

In rejecting the latest offer, brought by Town Manager O. Paul Shew, council members said they thought the proposed raises were too high, although pension provisions had been lowered in exchange for the higher wages.

The proposal failed, 6-2, with Deputy Mayor William Pacelia and council member Michael Gerace voting in favor. The vote sends the contract back to arbitration.

The proposed four-year agreement, which had not been voted on by the police union, would have saved the town $35,000 to $55,000 from a previous four-year offer it rejected in November. The savings would have come in reductions in the previously proposed pension provisions.

The package had included raises of 5 percent for the first year, 4 percent for the second year, and 3 percent for the third and fourth years of the contract.

"We labored to put together something we thought and that we knew was less expensive," Shew said. A heated discussion ensued between council members, who charged one another with favoring the proposed contract during a recent executive session.

"I did not say I approved it," council member Joseph Dinunzio said. Dinunzio added that he had merely wanted to study the effect of the proposal. Council member Nicholas LaRosa said other council members had heard that he, Dinunzio and Sweezy had approved the proposal.

"That contract is too lucrative," LaRosa said. Pacelia said that Sweezy, during executive session, had asked that percentage points be added to the raises.

"What happened in that executive session? There are nine different interpretations," council member Arthur Spada said.

In place of the defeated proposal, the council suggested that the police bring a four-year-contract with a 4 percent raise the first year and 3 percent raises in the remaining years. The suggestion was approved in a 5-2 vote - Pacelia had left the meeting briefly - with an amendment that stipulated that the raise proposals should not go any higher.

The proposal defeated Monday had included a joint and survivorship benefit option that would have increased from 50 percent to 100 percent the amount of pension payments given to a surviving spouse of a former police department employee.

Managed-care provisions also would have been added. All pension provisions were deferred until the end of the contract.

There would be no co-payments or increases in premium shares for the health insurance of present employees. However, new employees would contribute 10 percent to the cost of their premium. The council also suggested reducing the proposed joint and survivorship benefit payments to 50 percent - the level presently paid at the police department.

Approving a contract would have ended a battle between the Local 316 of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the Connecticut State Board of Labor Relations in November.